The European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) proposed the Ultra Wideband (UWB) specification at the physical layer and the MAC layer as defined in the standard of ECMA368 in 2005. Ultra Wideband (UWB) refers to carrier-free communication where data is transmitted in a sine wave narrow pulse on the order of nanoseconds to microseconds. Only a 4-way handshake protocol for creating or updating a Pairwise Temporal Key (PTK) between Ultra Wideband (UWB) devices and a Group Temporal Key (GTK) distribution protocol for creating or updating a Group Temporal Key (GTK) between Ultra Wideband (UWB) devices are designed for an authentication and association process in the standard of ECMA368. The authentication and association process may be performed in the following two scenarios.
1) Passive scanning: a responder waits for reception of relevant information transmitted from an initiator
1.1) the initiator broadcasts relevant Information Elements (IEs) (e.g., several system parameters, etc.) about a device of the initiator in a beacon frame periodically;
1.2) the responder checks whether the beacon frame transmitted form the initiator includes all of Information Elements (IEs) required for the authentication and association process upon reception of the beacon frame transmitted form the initiator, and if so, then an operation of 1.5) is executed; otherwise, the responder transmits to the initiator a probe request frame including the identifier (ID) of an Information Element (IE) requested by the responder from the initiator;
1.3) the initiator constructs and transmits to the responder a probe response frame including the Information Element (IE) requested by the responder from the initiator according to the identifier (ID) of the Information Element (IE) requested in the probe request frame upon reception of the probe request frame transmitted from the responder;
1.4) the responder checks whether the contents of the Information Element (IE) complies with required authentication and association upon reception of the probe response frame transmitted from the initiator, and if not so, then no authentication and association process can be performed; otherwise, the operation of 1.5) is executed; and
1.5) the responder initiates the 4-way handshake protocol for creating or updating a Pairwise Temporal Key (PTK) between Ultra Wideband (UWB) devices or the Group Temporal Key (GTK) distribution protocol for creating or updating a Group Temporal Key (GTK) between the Ultra Wideband (UWB) devices after the Pairwise Temporal Key (PTK) between the Ultra Wideband (UWB) devices has been created successfully; and the initiator and the responder finish the authentication and association process after both of them have created successfully the Pairwise Temporal Key (PTK) and the Group Temporal Key (GTK).
2) Active scanning: the responder requests relevant information actively from the initiator
2.1) if the responder receives no beacon frame transmitted from the initiator, then the responder transmits to the initiator a probe request frame including the identifier (ID) of an Information Element (IE) requested by the responder from the initiator;
2.2) the initiator constructs and transmits to the responder a probe response frame including the Information Element (IE) requested by the responder from the initiator according to the identifier (ID) of the Information Element (IE) requested in the probe request frame upon reception of the probe request frame transmitted from the responder;
2.3) the responder checks whether the contents of the Information Element (IE) complies with required authentication and association upon reception of the probe response frame transmitted from the initiator, and if not so, then no authentication and association process can be performed; otherwise, an operation of 2.4) may be executed; and
2.4) the responder initiates the 4-way handshake protocol for creating or updating a Pairwise Temporal Key (PTK) between Ultra Wideband (UWB) devices or the Group Temporal Key (GTK) distribution protocol for creating or updating a Group Temporal Key (GTK) between the Ultra Wideband (UWB) devices after the Pairwise Temporal Key (PTK) between the Ultra Wideband (UWB) devices has been created successfully; and the initiator and the responder finish the authentication and association process after both of them have created successfully the Pairwise Temporal Key (PTK) and a Group Temporal Key (GTK).
The initiator and the responder thus establish a secure association relationship between them after performing the foregoing authentication and association process.
As can be apparent from the authentication and association process in the forgoing two scenarios, the authentication and association process in the standard of ECMA368 is designed for either a single solution to creation of a Pairwise Temporal Key (PTK) (the 4-way handshake protocol) or a single solution to distribution of a Group Temporal Key (GTK) (the Group Temporal Key (GTK) distribution protocol), and if there are plural solutions to creation of a Pairwise Temporal Key (PTK) or distribution of a Group Temporal Key (GTK), then no authentication and association process in the standard of ECMA368 can be performed. An Ultra Wideband (UWB) communication network in a real environment lends itself to a variety of applications, and also different capabilities of power, security, computation, etc., are required for devices in different application scenarios. In order to improve the efficiency of the devices and optimize resources of the network, plural authentication and association solutions are required to accommodate the applications in the different scenarios. Therefore, there is a need of a mechanism for discovering and negotiating about an authentication and association solution between devices supporting plural authentication and association solutions to perform mutual association between the devices.